Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina at harvest time and caused agricultural losses of $1.1 billion, almost all of it in row crops, said the state Agriculture Department on Wednesday. The figure is nearly three times larger than the $400 million in damage caused by Hurricane Matthew two years ago.
“These early estimates show just what a devastating and staggering blow this hurricane leveled at our agriculture industry,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. Losses to row crops, such as cotton and tobacco, were estimated at $987 million, followed by forestry at $70 million, green industry at $30 million, vegetable and horticulture crops at $27 million, and livestock and aquaculture losses at $23 million. The livestock losses included 4.1 million poultry and 5,500 hogs.
State officials said the figures were based on the percentage of crops still in the field in the state’s 35 top-producing counties when Florence reached land on Sept. 14, average yields for the crops, and average prices.
As of Wednesday morning, 41 manure lagoons on industrial livestock farms were overflowing or flooding and an additional 56 lagoons were in danger of overflowing, said the state Department of Environmental Quality. The figures are almost unchanged since Saturday.